Hoffman Center Blog

John Kroger will read from his book Convictions at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7 pm on Saturday, August 21, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.
 
Convictions, subtitled A Prosecutor’s Battles Against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins, and Enron Thieves, is a professional and personal memoir that won the Oregon Book Award for creative nonfiction in 2009. The book chronicles Kroger’s decade long career as an assistant U.S. prosecutor working out of lower Manhattan, where he tackled organized crime’s biggest names and lowest operatives.
 
Kroger is the Attorney General of Oregon. His background includes service with the U.S. Marines Special Forces, a degree in philosophy from Yale University, a law degree from Harvard University, and time as a senior adviser to presidential hopeful Bill Clinton. He has worked as a federal prosecutor, and law professor.

After years of taking down mobsters he needed a break and went on a solo bike ride across the country, attending to his own spiritual needs with as much energy as he fought for the public well-being. It’s this theme that resonates throughout: maintaining his personal convictions while convicting as many criminals as possible. In the end, he lasted longer as a prosecutor than most but eventually burned out and headed west. Still, after only a year of teaching at Lewis & Clark College, he was pulled back into the Enron investigations, and then found himself in the race for state attorney general. After only one year in office he has already fulfilled a campaign promise to establish an environmental crimes task force.

Following the author reading and Q&A, the popular Open Mic session will provide opportunities for the audience to hear nine local writers read from their original work. Interested writers sign up at the door to read; first come, first to read.
Writers interested in reading should check out the Open Mic guidelines  and come prepared to read your original piece of work in five minutes or less.
 
The reading will be held at the Hoffman Center (across from Manzanita Library at 594 Laneda Avenue.) The building will be set up in a café style with coffee/tea and snacks available. Admission fee is $5. (Check out the 2010 schedule or contact Kathie Hightower, 503-739-1505; kathie@jumpintolife.net).

You want writing to be a priority in your life, but you keep getting side-tracked?

You wish you could focus on your writing, but you keep self-sabotaging?

You want to move from writing-as-hobby to writing-as-profession, but you don’t know how?

Lauren Kessler (www.laurenkessler.com <http://www.laurenkessler.com> ) and Thomas Hager (www.thomashager.net <http://www.thomashager.net> ) – who between them have written 18 books – will help you get serious about your writing life, from daily inspiration to annual budgeting. This one-day, high-energy workshop – with exercises and expert tips – will inspire you to up your game, whether it’s fiction, nonfiction or poetry. Learn from two writers in the trenches who have weathered the storms…and crafted successful writing lives for themselves as they raised three children.

 Lauren Kessler is the author of 12 books, including 6 works of narrative nonfiction. Her newest book, just released, is My Teenage Werewolf: A Mother, A Daughter, A journey through the Thickets of Adolescence. She is also the author of Pacific Northwest Book Award and Oregon Book Award winner Dancing with Rose; Washington Post bestseller Clever Girl; Los Angeles Times bestseller The Happy Bottom Riding Club and Oregon Book Award-winner Stubborn Twig, which was chosen to be the book for all Oregonians to read on the occasion of the sesquecentennial last year.

Tom Hager is the author of six nonfiction books and the former publisher of the University of Oregon

 Press. His most recent book, The Alchemy of Air, was named a “Best Book of 2008″ by Kirkus Reviews, and is a national finalist in Border’s “Original Voices” award program.

Saturday, August 21st from 10-3 Cost: $50.

Download and complete the Crafting Workshop Registration Form, and mail it in with your check to register.

Cathy Lamb will read from her latest novel Henry’s Sisters at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7 pm on Saturday, July 17, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.

 Henry’s Sisters is a story of strength and reconciliation and change, with a Columbia River Gorge backdrop.

 A Publisher’s Weeklyreview says “Lamb delivers grace, humor and forgiveness…positively irresistible.”

 The Three Tomatoes Book Club blog declares: “If you loved Terms of Endearment, the Ya Ya Sisterhood, and Steel Magnolias, you will love Henry’s Sisters. Cathy Lamb just keeps getting better and better.”

 Previous books include Julia’s Chocolates and The Last Time I Was Me. Her next book, Such A Pretty Face, is due out at the end of July, and Holiday Magic, an anthology with Fern Michaels, comes out in November, 2010.

 Lamb has a B.A. in Elementary Education and a M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction, both from the University of Oregon. She was a fourth grade teacher for Beaverton Schools for more than seven years. In addition to writing seven books, she has written about 200 articles as a freelance writer for The Oregonian. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and three children.

 Following the author reading and Q&A, the popular Open Mic session will provide opportunities for the audience to hear nine local writers read from their original work. Interested writers sign up at the door to read; first come, first to read.

Writers interested in reading should check out the Open Mic guidelines at hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org> > and come prepared to read your original piece of work in five minutes or less.

 The series is a program of the Hoffman Center and will be held at the Hoffman Center (across from Manzanita Library at 594 Laneda Avenue.) The building will be set up in a café style with coffee/tea and snacks available. Admission fee is $5. Further information contact Kathie Hightower, 503-739-1505; kathie@jumpintolife.net.

The “En Plein Air” workshop at the Alder Creek Farm Conservation Site led by award-winning author Robert Michael Pyle still has room.  Sign up this week and take the opportunity to study with a master, to spend a day that will combine lecture with observation, writing and “workshopping” your words.

Click here http://hoffmanblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/en-plein-air-registration.pdf to print off and complete your registration form and order your lunch. 

 “Imagination and the interior life are all very fine,” says Pyle, “but we should not neglect the fact that we live in a sensual and sensory wonderland whose close observation can only enrich every story, poem or essay.”

Pyle has published hundreds of essays, stories and poems along with fourteen books, including Wintergreen, Where Bigfoot Walks, Walking the High Ridge, and Sky Time in Gray’s River. His latest book, Mariposa Road, is due out later this year. Pyle has his Ph.D. in conservation biology from Yale. He’s won numerous awards to include the John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Harry B. Nehls Award in Nature Writing, and the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature.

 Alder Creek Farm is a 52-acre conservation site preserved as open space by the Lower Nehalem Community Trust. You’ll have a chance to wander the property for your observations, with views of the bay, an estuary, permaculture gardens, lots of wildlife, and often a herd of elk.

 The workshop will run from 9am to 3pm. The fee is $95, $85 for LNCT members, and includes a box lunch. There is space for 20 participants.  For additional information, or to give us a ‘heads up’ that you’ll be coming, email vwildauer@gmail.com.

 This workshop is a collaboration between the Hoffman Center’s Manzanita Writers’ Series and the Lower Nehalem Community Trust.  To become a member of the Lower Nehalem Community Trust, go to www.nehalemtrust.org.

Jim Lynch will read from his latest novel Border Songs at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7 pm on Saturday, June 19, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.

Border Songs was picked as one of six finalists for American Booksellers Award for best fiction of 2009. It was also picked as among the Best Books of 2009 by The Washington Post, The Toronto Star, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, and The Oregonian.

One of his many glowing reviews reads:

“Although I think Border Songs is in a class by itself, I’d also like to offer just a couple of comparisons that give the feel of what a great read this really is. It’s The Big Chill of life on the border, and a cross between The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and T. C. Boyle’s Budding Prospects. Finding a novel that is at once pure fun but literary, and humorous with outstanding character development, can be hard to come by. But Jim Lynch has wrapped it up tightly in this incredible story of life in a border town near British Columbia. All in all, a wonderland of growers, dealers, smokers, and birders! Fantastic!” —Linda Grana, Lafayette Books, Lafayette, California

His first novel, The Highest Tide, won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, appeared on several best-seller lists, was adapted for the stage and has been published in eleven foreign markets.

Jim Lynch lives with his wife and their daughter in Olympia, Washington. As a journalist, he has received the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, among other national honors.

Following the author reading and Q&A, the popular Open Mic session will provide opportunities for the audience to hear nine local writers read from their original work. Interested writers sign up at the door to read; first come, first to read.

Writers interested in reading should check out the Open Mic guidelines at hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org> > and come prepared to read your original piece of work in five minutes or less.

The series is a program of the Hoffman Center and will be held at the Hoffman Center (across from Manzanita Library at 594 Laneda Avenue.) The building will be set up in a café style with coffee/tea and snacks available. Admission fee is $5. For further contact Kathie Hightower, 503-739-1505; kathie@jumpintolife.net).

Playwright Bryan Harnetiaux will read from a number of his plays at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7pm on Saturday, May 15, 2010, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.
 
He will also conduct a playwriting workshop during the day Saturday, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Hoffman Center. Harnetiaux’s play Vesta will be performed at the Hoffman Center on Friday, May 14, at 7:30 pm as a staged reading with local resident and national actor Liz Cole directing and acting in the title role.
 
Harnetiaux, playwright-in-residence at Spokane Civic Theatre, has written over 30 plays, 13 of which have been published, including commissioned adaptations for Dramatic Publishing Company of the stories of Ernest Hemingway (The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Killers) and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (Long Walk to Forever). 
 
Harnetiaux’s most recent published play, National Pastime (Playscripts, Inc., NYC) has received professional productions on the West and East coasts.  His cycle of plays on end-of-life (Vesta, Dusk and Holding On ~ Letting Go) are now specially licensed for productions in clinical settings by Duke University’s Institute on Care at the End-of-Life and have been performed throughout the country; these plays have also enjoyed mainstream theater productions. Harnetiaux is an associate member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
 
Following Harnetiaux’s reading and Q&A, the popular Open Mic session will provide opportunities for the audience to hear nine local writers read from their original work. Interested writers sign up at the door to read; first come, first to read.
Writers interested in reading should check out the Open Mic guidelines at hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org <http://hoffmanblog.org> > and come prepared to read your original piece of work in five minutes or less.

Playwright Bryan Harnetiaux will conduct a playwriting workshop from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 15, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita. Registration will be limited to ten people.

Have you ever wanted to write a play, or possibly turn your short story or novel into a play? Here’s your chance. The playwriting workshop will focus on the art of playwriting, the process of playwriting, and the business of playwriting. It will also include a brief writing exercise designed to focus on the elements of playwriting.

Harnetiaux, a playwright-in-residence at Spokane Civic Theatre, has written over 30 plays, 13 of which have been published, including commissioned adaptations for Dramatic Publishing Company of the stories of Ernest Hemingway (The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Killers) and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (Long Walk to Forever).

Mr. Harnetiaux’s most recent published play, National Pastime (Playscripts, Inc., NYC) has received professional productions on the West and East coasts. His cycle of plays on end-of-life (Vesta, Dusk and Holding On ~ Letting Go) are now specially licensed for productions in clinical settings by Duke University’s Institute on Care at the End-of-Life and have been performed throughout the country; these plays have also enjoyed mainstream theatre productions. Harnetiaux is an associate member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Harnetiaux’s play Vesta will be performed at the Hoffman Center on Friday, May 14, at 7:30 pm as a reader’s theater with local resident and national actor Liz Megan Cole directing and acting. On Saturday evening, Harnetiaux will read from his play National Pastime and answer questions at the Manzanita Writers’ Series.

The workshop is a program of the Hoffman Center and will be held at the Hoffman House Studios Classroom at 595 Laneda Avenue (next to the library). Admission fee is $50.  Click here to print the registration form.

Sage Cohen’s two-part workshop on Saturday, April 17, has been moved to the Center for the Contemplative Arts in Manzanita, which is located at the Underhill Plaza on the corner of Manzanita Avenue and Division.  The workshop will cover the creativity and the business of poetry.
 
Poetry: From Pen to Page to Published, will run from 1pm to 3:30pm.
 
Have you always wanted to write a poem, but don’t know how to begin? Are you already writing poetry and want to connect with your muse more often? Spend the first half of this lively workshop to get your poetic juices flowing with a mix of inspiration, craft tips, and exercises.
 
After a break, get down to the business of poetry. Participants will learn to develop the skills, tools and systems they need to publish their poetry:
How to identify the right publications, contests, prizes and residencies for your poetry.
How to establish a submissions tracking system that keeps you moving forward.
How an online presence can help you get in the public eye, and stay there.
Sage is the author of Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry (Writers Digest Books, 2009), The Productive Writer: Tips & Tools for Writing More, Stressing Less and Creating Success(Writer’s Digest Books, forthcoming in 2010) and the poetry collection Like the Heart, the World.
Sage won first prize in the Ghost Road Press poetry contest, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was awarded a Soapstone residency. She is a columnist for Read Write Poem and publisher of the Writing the Life Poetic Zine.
Sage holds an MFA in creative writing from New York University and a BA in comparative literature from Brown University. She teaches, lectures and reads widely at writing conferences, libraries, universities, bookstores, as well as the popular online class “Poetry for the People”. Learn more about Sage and her books at www.sagesaidso.com <http://www.sagesaidso.com> . 

The workshop is a program of the Hoffman Center.  Admission fee is $25, $25 for students. Download a registration form at http://hoffmanblog.org/manzanita-writers-series/workshops or contact Kathie Hightower, 503-739-1505; kathie@jumpintolife.net.

Cheryl Strayed will read from her novel Torch at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7 pm on Saturday, March 20, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.

Torch was a finalist for the Great Lakes Book Award and was selected by The Oregonian as one of the top ten books by Pacific Northwest authors.

Strayed shows a deep appreciation for the rhythms of small-town life, capturing the sense of community, the struggle to earn a living, and also the disdain for “city apes.” In addition, she discerns within one family’s crisis the painful, shifting nature of familial relationships.

— Booklist

Strayed’s award-winning stories and essays have appeared in over a dozen magazines, journals, and anthologies. Her personal essays, “Heroin/e” and “The Love of My Life,” were both selected for inclusion in the prestigious Best American Essays collections and she has published in magazines such as the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post Magazine, Allure and The Sun. She has her MFA in Fiction Writing.

She has sold her upcoming memoir Wild,to Alfred A. Knopf in a mid-six figure deal.

 Strayed lives in Portland, Oregon with her filmmaker husband, Brian Lindstrom, and their two children.

 Following the author reading and Q&A, the popular Open Mic session will provide opportunities for the audience to hear nine local writers read from their original work. Interested writers sign up at the door to read; first come, first to read.

Writers interested in reading should check out the Open Mic guidelines and come prepared to read your original piece of work in five minutes or less.

Chip MacGregor, president of MacGregor Literary, will present a workshop from 1 to 3pm on Saturday, March 13, 2010 at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita, titled “How to Find and Approach a Literary Agent.” This workshop is one in a series of writing workshops presented by the Manzanita Writers’ Series.

In this two-hour seminar you’ll learn exactly what a literary agent does and why they are a crucial part of today’s publishing process. Find out how to research and identify an agent, how to approach and pitch them, and how to create eye-catching proposals. Chip will cover the keys for successfully working with an agent once you have one, plus how current trends in publishing are changing the author/agent relationship.

 Attendees are invited to bring a proposal to the workshop, for a short in-class evaluation of each entitled, “Will I read on?”

The registration fee is $25. Click here for a registration form.

Chip MacGregor has been in the publishing business for more than two decades, first as author/collaborator on two dozen titles himself. As a literary agent he’s represented more than 1,000 books, including many award winners. He’s negotiated deals with some 40 publishers, including all the major US publishing houses and had books on all the bestseller lists, including one at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. Prior to being an agent, Chip worked at several publishers including Time Warner Book Group. He offers a well-rounded perspective on the publishing business.